Just hours after Canada announced a drastic overhaul of its struggling postal service – including ending door-to-door mail delivery, closing rural post offices, and consolidating operations – postal workers immediately responded with a walkout.
This significant government directive comes at a critical time, as the national mail carrier faces steep financial losses threatening its very existence. The decision also intensified already strained labor negotiations, where the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been vehemently advocating for job security and service preservation.
Since 2018, the government-owned Canada Post has accumulated losses exceeding 5 billion Canadian dollars (approximately $3.6 billion USD). This financial downturn is primarily due to a dramatic decline in traditional letter mail. Initial hopes that a booming parcel delivery market could rescue the organization have been dashed by fierce competition and the rise of new companies employing non-unionized gig workers.
Joël Lightbound, Canada’s Minister for Public Services, declared during a Thursday news conference that “Canada Post is effectively insolvent, and it is facing an existential crisis.”
These proposed cost-cutting measures, according to the government, are essential to stabilize Canada Post’s finances after numerous bailouts. However, they are also expected to lead to substantial job losses among the service’s 68,000 employees.
Doug Ettinger, Canada Post’s chief executive, stated that “Today’s announcement will allow us to make the changes needed to restore Canada’s postal service for all Canadians by evolving to better meet their needs.”
The decision, however, sparked outrage from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). In a statement, the union asserted that its walkout was a direct response “to the government’s attack on our postal service and workers.”
This marks the second time in less than a year that postal workers have halted services. After a return to work last December, subsequent negotiations failed to produce a new contract. In recent months, workers had already escalated their dispute, beginning in May by refusing overtime and, more recently, ceasing the delivery of advertising leaflets.
Stephanie Ross, a professor of labor studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, observed that “What leverage the union had at the bargaining table has now been significantly undermined.” She characterized the situation as “an existential battle for survival” between the two parties.
Door-to-door mail delivery has gradually become a relic in many parts of Canada, with only about a quarter of Canadians currently receiving mail directly at their homes. The majority instead rely on community mailboxes located conveniently near their residences.
Despite this trend, the complete elimination of door-to-door service will still impact approximately four million addresses, according to government figures.
Ian Lee, a business professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and a long-time observer of the postal service, stated, “The data was screaming at us that Canada Post was desperate to be reorganized and restructured.”
Canada Post had previously been on a path to phase out door-to-door delivery. However, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famously campaigned against these changes in 2015, and upon taking office, he ordered the postal service to halt its transition to community mailboxes.
Since that time, the volume of letter mail has dramatically decreased, a trend exacerbated during and following the Covid-19 pandemic.
While a June poll by the Angus Reid Institute, a non-profit firm, indicates that Canadians generally do not favor a complete end to door-to-door service, there’s growing support for operational changes and service reductions at Canada Post, a shift attributed to the organization’s increasingly dire financial outlook.
Minister Lightbound emphasized the government’s stance: “The political decision is that we can’t, Canadians can’t, be footing an ever-growing bill year after year.”
Officials confirmed that no precise date has been set for the cessation of at-home mail delivery, but the new measures will be rolled out gradually.
Additional cost-saving initiatives include shifting some mail transportation from air to ground and revoking a 1994 ban on closing rural post offices, a measure that was equally controversial when first introduced.